(Minghui.org) Mr. Jiao Meishan, 68, sustained a comminuted fracture in his lower spine and became paralyzed after he fell while working at a height in 1995.
Two months after the Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province resident took up Falun Gong in 1996, he was able to stand up again and regained his mobility.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
Because of not giving up his faith after the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Jiao was arrested twice and sentenced to nine years in prison in 2006.
When he was released in 2015, the local Social Security Office refused to issue him his pension payment because of his faith, even though he and his workplace, Shijiazhuang Casting Pipe Factory, together had made enough contributions to his pension retirement account to warrant full benefits before his imprisonment.
Mr. Jiao sought his pension benefits from the head of the Social Security Office several times, but no avail.
Below is his personal account of the persecution he has suffered over the past 20 years, simply for upholding his faith.
I was arrested for doing the Falun Gong exercises outdoors with other practitioners on February 4, 2000.
After ten days of detention, the officers took me back to the local police station for interrogation. They attempted to find out who organized the event. I refused to answer their questions.
The officers locked me in solitary confinement on the first evening. They hung me up by my wrists with my toes barely touching the ground for an entire night.
When I was released the next morning, my wrists had deep bruises caused by the handcuffs, which didn't go away until more than one month later.
On the second evening, the police took off my winter coat and left me outdoor in the freezing temperature.
I was restrained on a bed and not allowed to sleep on the third evening.
I was sent back to Gaocheng Detention Center on the fourth day and held there until February 22, 2000.
I was arrested again on March 3, 2006 for printing informational pamphlets about Falun Gong.
Although I refused to tell the police my name, they found my information in their online database.
Deng Fang, the head of the Shijiazhuang City Domestic Security Division, said they could release me if I cooperated with them and recorded some videos at their instruction.
I refused to comply, knowing that they would use such videos to demonizing Falun Gong.
I was then sent to a detention center.
The Xinhua District Court sentenced me to nine years in prison in July 2006. I appealed the verdict, but my appeal was rejected by the Shijiazhuang City Intermediate Court.
The authorities at Tangshan Prison offered to reduce my term by one year in early 2014. But their proposal was rejected by staff from the Shijiazhuang 610 Office, after I told them that there was no way that I would ever give up practicing Falun Gong.
I served a full nine-year term and was released in March 2015.
With the social security office refusing to issue my pension benefits, I haven't had any income since then.